How to Use Zoom Online Meetings – Setting up an account and hosting a meeting tutorial
The instruction video includes the following elements:
- Setup
- Creating an account – simply go to zoom.us and sign in with your Google or Facebook account
- Pricing – you can totally do this for free. But, I encourage you to pay for at least the first tier if you use zoom on a daily basis.
- Limits on Free Account – The only real limitation is that if you have 3 or more people in the meeting, your meeting will be cut off at 4o min. There are a few other differences like personalization and extra features.
- FAVORITE SETTINGS – I have a few favorite settings I like to set:
- Join before host – this allows people to get on before you. If you don’t have waiting room set up, people can also start talking to each other.
- Play sound when participating (heard by host only) – I like this setting as it lets me know when people get on.
- Remote support – This setting allows me to control the screen of one other participant. It prompts them to share their screen and then I can control their curser.
- Allow to join through browser – If someone is on a public computer, or a computer that they can’t install stuff on, this is a good option. It allows them to view through a browser. They will have a better experience if they join through the downloaded app.
- Get emails if they join first – this setting sends you an email if someone joins while you are not there. It might save you from a forgotten appointment or you might be able to quickly say, “hi” to people just testing out the software.
- MEETING SETTINGS – The next step is to set up a meeting. Here are some of the meeting settings I like:
- Meeting ID same as phone number – if you have a paid account, you can change your meeting number to be the same as you phone number – easy to remember
- Recurring – if you plan on using the same Meeting ID over an over, you can set your meeting to recurring and then each participant can continue to use the same link each time they want to meet with you.
- Adjust meeting-specific settings – you can make changes to meeting settings for individual meetings
- Getting others to join
- Where to get your link – all you need to do is open up your meeting under the meeting tab, and you’ll see your zoom link and meeting ID there. You will also see somewhere where you can copy meeting settings to the clipboard.
- How to share your link – you can send your meeting link to people via email, text, post on social media, or any way you want. Some of our team also save the link in their calendar or note app on their smartphone.
- Running your Zoom call
- How you can join your meeting – you can just go online to your account, navigate to the meeting, and click on start meeting. You can also open the Zoom app on either your computer or mobile device, log in and click on start meeting. And of course, you can join just like everyone else and then just click on the link to log in when the meeting is open if you are not already logged in.
- How others get on your zoom meeting – all most of people will need to do is click on the link to join your meeting.
- DEVICES
- Smartphones – they need to download the app. Sometimes when they have the app downloaded, they will need to click on the link again to navigate into the meeting again.
- Tablets – this will be the same as smartphones.
- Desktops – on the computer, your participants just need to click on the link. Of course, they can go to zoom.us and enter the Meeting ID, but, really they easiest way is to click on the link. It will prompt them to download the program and then get them into the meeting, but on computers, they also have the option of joining through a browser.
- Laptops – this will be the same as desktops.
- The app – Both computers and smartphones have a app to download. However, on computers, they app is optional if they join by browser.
- Through a browser – When the setting is on (you can adjust this in settings in your account at zoom.us), the load screen that prompts them to download the software will also present an option to view on a browser without installing anything on the computer – not as good of an option, but still opens your meetings to more people.
- Phone – if someone wants to join, but doesn’t have internet, they have the option to call in using the telephone numbers and input the Meeting ID. This option may not be available during high-volume usage times. Also they need to use *6 to mute and unmute themselves and *9 to raise and lower their hands during the meeting. I include that in the instructions I send them.
- Interacting – there are many ways to interact with people in your zoom meeting
- Muting – you can mute yourself by clicking on the mic icon. To mute your participants, you can hover over their picture or their name in the participants panel and click on mute
- Toggling video – you can turn your video on or off by clicking on the video icon in the bottom tray
- Who can talk who can hear – Everyone should be able to hear you, and anyone who is not muted can talk. And they can talk all at the same time.
- Chat – There is a chat feature that allows your participants to chat with you or with everyone on the call, and you can reply to them in the same manner.
- Emotes – recently, zoom has added emotes that let you and your participants. You can either clap or give a thumbs up. The emote will only last for a few seconds before it disappears.
- Status – Everyone can set status like the following: yes, no, go faster, go slower, etc. These status symbols are persistent until they clear them or you erase them.
- Raising hands – Participants can also raise their hands. You can easily see who has questions and answer their questions and lower their hands. This is great for people to indicate that they want to ask something without interrupting you. It is superior to even being in a classroom.
- Creating a poll – You need to create the poll online. I believe this is a feature only available in paid accounts. When the meeting is going, you simply start the poll and everyone (except those who have dialed in) will see it on their devices. You can see the responses come in live. When all the responses are in, you can then share it with others.
- Grid View vs. Speaker View – The main speaker (the loudest) is brought to the front and their video is outlined with a green line. You can then switch from Speaker View to Gallery View.
- Leaving a meeting (vs. End meeting for everyone)
- How to record – When you are in the meeting, you need to find the record button and just hit record. People will see that you are recording the meeting.
- Automatic – in your account online at zoom.us, you can switch on the setting to automatically record every call. I have personally turned this feature off, so we have an unrestrained conversation until the recording starts.
- Local and Cloud – There will be a choice of whether you record on your computer (not available on mobile devices) or record in the cloud.
- Local recording – When you record on the computer, the recording will work in the background. After the entire meeting is finished (not after you end the recording), the will be a message that zoom is crunching the recording. Once the recordings are crunched, they will be saved to your zoom folder. There are three types of files:
- Videos – the videos are in any shape or size and they have the screen share and all the videos as you saw them during the call. For instance, if you have your call on gallery view, the video will be, too. You can use this video for sharing with those who couldn’t make it. In the past, we have posted our videos on YouTube or on Facebook or something.
- Audio – The audios are also available in separate files. You can also post these or use them as a podcast.
- Chat – The chat is saved for both the recorded section of the call and all the meeting. This is all in text format and has the name of the person asking questions.
- Local recording – When you record on the computer, the recording will work in the background. After the entire meeting is finished (not after you end the recording), the will be a message that zoom is crunching the recording. Once the recordings are crunched, they will be saved to your zoom folder. There are three types of files:
Add this to your meeting instructions:
When joining zoom by dialing in by phone, the following commands can be entered via DTMF tones using your phone’s dialpad while in a Zoom Meeting:
*6 – Toggle mute/un-mute
*9 – Toggle raise/lower hand
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